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JOSEPH    HENRY 


MAGNETIC      TELEGRAPH 


AN    ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  AT   PRINCETON  COLLEGE,   ME  16,   1885, 

BY 

EDWARD  N,  DICKERSON,  LL.D. 


"SI      MONUMENTUM      QU/ERIS      CIRCUMSPICE. " 


NEW   YORK 
SCRIBTsTER'S     SONS 

1885 


JOSEPH   HENRY 


MAGNETIC      TELEGRAPH 


A.N   ADDRESS 

DELIVERED  AT  PRINCETON  COLLEGE,   JUKE  16, 

BY 

EDWARD  N,  DICKERSON,  LLD, 


"SI      MONUMENTUM      QUARTS      CIRCUMSPICE. 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1885 


CO 

oo 

CD 


TK 


COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY, 
PRINCETON,  N.  J.,  June  19,  1885. 

MY  DEAR  SIR: 

Immediately  after  the  delivery  of  your  paper 
on  the  discoveries  of  Dr.  Joseph  Henry,  I  ex- 
pressed my  strong  personal  desire  to  see  it  pub- 
lished. 

I  find  that  the  College  is  at  one  with  me  in  this 
wish. 

We  should  like  to  have  so  comprehensive  a 
paper  circulated  in  our  day,  and  handed  down 
to  posterity. 


I  am  yours  ever, 

2  JAMES  McCOSH. 

u 

EDWARD  N.  DICKERSON,  LL.D. 

1C 

c 

3 


0 


Ntew  YORK,  June  22d,  1885. 
MY  DEAR  SIR  : 

I  take  pleasure  in  furnishing  to  Princeton  Col- 
lege my  address  presenting  the  memorial  tablet  of 
Professor  Henry.  I  have  added  to  it  an  appendix 
of  notes  supporting  the  statements  contained  in  it, 
which  I  trust  will  prove  satisfactory. 

It  is  a  labor  of  love  for  me  to  do  anything 
tending  to  present  our  great  and  beloved  friend  to 
his  own  age,  and  to  posterity,  in  his  true  propor- 
tions. His  achievements  seemed  to  him  so  easy 
to  perform,  that  he  never  looked  upon  them  as 
exhibiting  any  great  power  ;  and  he  therefore 
involuntarily  shrank  from  that  praise  to  which 
he  was  so  eminently  entitled,  and  from  conspic- 
uously exhibiting  his  results  before  the  world. 
He  preferred  to  defer  to  the  judgment  of  posterity, 
and  to  submit  his  reputation  to  the  ordeal  of 
time,  which,  like  a  simple  acid,  eats  away  the  baser 
metal,  and  leaves  the  pure  gold  free  from  its  asso- 
ciation. 

With  many  thanks  to  you  for  the  compliment 
implied  in  your  request, 

I  am,  sir,  very  truly, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

EDW.  N.  DICKERSON. 
President  McCosn, 

Princeton  College. 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 


DELIVEBED   BY 


EDWARD  N.  DICKER80N,  LLD,, 

PRESENTING    TO    PEINCETON   COLLEGE    A   TABLET    DESIGNED    TO 

COMMEMOBATE   THE  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE 

ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPH    OF 

JOSEPH  HENRY. 


MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN,  TRUSTEES  OF  THE 
COLLEGE  OF  NEW  JERSEY  : 

The  pleasing  but  sad  duty  has  been  assigned  to 
me  of  presenting  to  you  this  memorial  tablet  of 
the  beloved  master,  who  once  shed  the  lustre  of  his 
genius  over  this  ancient  seat  of  learning,  and  once 
attracted  to  its  classic  shades,  allured  by  his  great 
reputation,  pilgrims  from  all  lands,  to  drink  from 
the  living  font  of  knowledge,  ever  replenished 
and  refreshed  by  his  ceaseless  contributions. 

I  commit  this  monument  to  your  tender  care. 
May  it  ever  remain  enshrined  in  this  beautiful 
temple.  May  its  presence  encourage  those,  and 
the  successors  of  those,  to  whom  he  delivered  his 
torch  of  sciencer  ablaze  with  a  light  which  had 


PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 


penetrated  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the  earth,  to 
tend  that  sacred  flame;  so  that  when  they  shall 
transmit  it  to  their  successors,  it  shall  still  be 
borne  high  aloft  in  the  upper  atmosphere  of  pure 
truth,  with  still  increasing  lustre  —  a  guiding 
beacon  to  the  wayfarer,  wandering  and  astray 
in  the  gloomy  valleys  of  ignorance — those  deep 
defiles,  where  the  shadows  seem  ever  darkening 
by  contrast  with  the  brightening  mountain  tops 
illumined  by  the  rising  sun  of  knowledge. 

May  it  inspire  the  ingenuous  youth,  who  in  the 
thronging  years  of  the  future  shall  gather  about 
these  altars,  to  search  the  character  and  achieve- 
ments of  the  great  master;  that  they  may  be  taught 
by  him  how  to  study;  how  to  think;  how  to  work; 
how  to  live;  and  how  to  die. 

May  it  continue  to  remind  those  who  annually 
are  attracted  here  to  witness  the  evidences  of  the 
growth  of  knowledge,  as  they  are  exhibited  in  the 
commencement  seasons,  that  once  this  college  was 
honored  by  the  ministrations  of  Joseph  Henry, 
an  American,  who,  with  means  created  almost 
wholly  by  himself,  rivalled  the  achievements  of 
the  greatest  scientists  of  the  old  world,  working 
with  the  resources  of  nobly-endowed  institutions, 
and  encouraged  by  the  bounty  of  Kings;  and  for 
years  was  ever  a  leader  in  the  vigorous  attack 
upon  the  arcana  of  nature,  made  by  the  champions 
of  science  in  the  early  years  of  this  century. 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


For  those  of  us  who  enjoyed  the  happiness  of 
knowing  him  well,  and  loving  him  dearly,  no 
sculptured  marble  is  needed  to  stir  our  hearts,  or 
keep  fresh  in  our  memories  that  noble  presence, 
which  at  once  charmed  and  satisfied  our  senses. 
Nor,  if  the  chisel  of  the  artist  were  guided  by  the 
genius  that  once  inspired  Phidias,  would  it  be 
capable  of  fixing  upon  dull,  cold  marble  more  than 
one  of  the  almost  infinite  variety  of  expressions 
revealing  to  the  world  without  the  exalted  being 
within. 

But  to  those  who  have  never  seen  him,  or  having 
seen  him  have  never  known  him,  and  to  those  who 
shall  come  after  us,  it  will  be  something  to  look 
upon  this  marble,  and  inspired  by  the  thoughts  he 
uttered,  and  the  deeds  he  did,  contemplate  its  calm 
expression,  and  imagine  what  must  have  been  the 
living  man. 

In  the  year  1839,  nearly  half  a  century  ago, 
brought  here  as  a  student,  I  first  saw  Professor 
Henry.  I  remember  it  well — the  time,  the  place, 
and  the  surroundings.  Boyish  imagination  had 
pictured  the  great  discoverer  as  a  venerable  man, 
bowed  down  with  the  toil  of  years,  bearing  the 
furrows,  with  which  overtasked  nature  revenges 
herself,  traced  upon  his  brow :  such  a  person, 
perhaps,  as  the  artist  has  presented  to  us  in  the 
familiar  picture  of  Humboldt  in  his  library. 


8  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

How  different  the  reality  !  In  the  maturity  of  a 
perfect  manhood  he  stood  : 

"  A  combination,  and  a  form  indeed, 
Where  every  God  did  seem  to  set  his  seal, 
To  give  the  world  assurance  of  a  man." 

His  clear  and  delicate  complexion,  flushed  with 
perfect  health,  bloomed  with  hues  that  maidenhood 
might  envy.  Upon  his  splendid  front,  neither 
time,  nor  corroding  care,  nor  blear-eyed  envy, 
had  written  a  wrinkle,  or  left  a  cloud  ;  it  was 
fair  and  pure  as  monumental  alabaster.  His 
erect  and  noble  form,  firmly  and  gracefully 
poised,  would  have  afforded  to  an  artist  an  ideal 
model  for  an  Apollo.  The  joy  of  conflict  and  of 
triumph  beamed  from  his  countenance — a  conflict 
in  which,  for  years,  he  had  struggled  with  the 
phantoms  that  guard  the  hidden  treasures  of 
nature,  and  had  ever  been  victorious.  And  above 
all,  surmounting  all,  infinite  charity  and  gentle- 
ness— like  the  charity  and  gentleness  of  a  loving 
mother  for  her  erring  children. 

To  him  the  youthful  student  bowed  down  in 
profound  admiration.  To  him,  and  to  his  memory, 
for  nearly  fifty  years,  he  has  clung  with  ever-in- 
creasing love  and  affection.  And  now  that  seven 
years  have  passed  away  since  death  severed  the 
bond  strengthened  by  a  life-time  of  intimacy, 
he  recurs  with  fondest  memories  to  the  many 
happy  occasions  when  it  was  his  good  fortune 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH. 


to  spend  hours  in  sweet  and  instructive  converse 
with  this  gifted  mortal,  to  whom  the  whole  book  of 
nature  was  an  open  volume,  out  of  which  he  ever 
read  lessons  of  wisdom,  and  beauty,  and  truth. 

As  Professor  Henry  appeared  in  1839,  so  he  con- 
tinued till  1847,  with  but  little  change  in  the 
physical  man — only  that  change,  which,  like  the 
changes  in  the  early  autumn,  lightly  touched  with 
tints  of  exquisite  beauty  the  mature  growth  of 
spring-time  and  summer  ;  and  then,  with  extreme 
reluctance,  he  departed  from  Princeton,  called  by 
his  country  to  lay  down  the  arms  with  which,  as 
a  soldier  in  the  ranks,  he  had  been  waging  his  war- 
fare against  ignorance,  and  take  command  of  the 
intellectual  forces  to  be  summoned  and  organized 
by  him  in  the  same  glorious  cause. 

Born  in  the  dying  moments  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  his  age  was  marked  by  the  numbers 
denoting  the  years  of  the  nineteenth.  Like  the 
century,  with  whose  growth  his  growth  kept 
pace,  he  had  developed  with  almost  unexampled 
rapidity;  and  at  the  age  of  thirty-two,  when  he 
took  his  chair  here,  although  "he  was  but  a 
"youth,  and  ruddy,  and  of  a  fair  countenance," 
and  was  armed  only  with  a  simple  sling  of  his 
own  construction,  and  pebbles  from  the  brook 
of  nature,  he  was  equal  to  the  trained  warriors 
of  maturer  growth  and  superior  armor,  waging 
war  against  the  Goliah  that  guarded  the  unex- 


10  PROFESSOR   HENRY  AND  THE 

plored  regions  of  nature's  secrets;  and  like  the 
great  king  of  Israel,  after  the  brunt  of  the  battle 
was  over,  he  came  to  be  leader  of  the  hosts,  who 
once  had  been  tending  only  a  "few  sheep  in  the 
wilderness." 

Let  us  contemplate  for  a  moment  the  intellectual 
stature  of  our  departed  teacher,  considered  merely 
as  an  investigator  of  natural  laws,  and  measured  by 
the  standard  established  by  the  intellectual  world. 

It  is  in  the  order  of  nature  that  the  intermittent 
progress  of  humanity  is  made  under  the  guidance 
of  gifted  men,  appearing  from  time  to  time,  who 
push  forward  the  outposts  of  truth,  whether  in 
morals  or  physics,  calling  upon  their  fellow-men 
to  hasten  and  occupy  the  newly-conquered  fields. 
The  names  of  such  men  are  few,  and  are  writ- 
ten upon  the  rolls  of  fame.  Their  glory  be- 
longs to  no  nation,  but  to  all  mankind.  Some- 
times simultaneously  and  in  different  parts  of  the 
world  two  such  appear,  who  seem  to  have 
been  cast  in  similar  moulds,  lest  perchance  one 
might  die  or  fail,  and  progress  stand  still.  Such 
men  were  Henry  and  Faraday,  whose  intellects 
were  moulded  with  the  same  capacities,  and  who 
worked  out  their  tasks  in  the  same  spirit.  If 
either  one  had  died  before  his  work  was  done,  the 
other  was  capable  of  doing  it ;  and,  in  fact,  both 
in  many  cases  struck  out  the  truth,  each  uncon- 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  11 

scious  that  the  twin  thought  had  been  born  in  the 
brain  of  the  other. 

To  those  devoted  friends  and  admirers  of  Fara- 
day, who  delight  in  singing  his  well-earned  praises, 
and  who  best  comprehend  his  achievements,  it 
seems  that  his  discovery  that  electricity  might 
be  produced  from  magnetism  was  his  grandest 
result.  Upon  it  depends  many  of  the  most 
important  applications  of  electricity  to  the  uses 
of  man ;  and  in  the  near  future  many  more 
are  coming.  Tyndall,  the  successor  of  Faraday, 
does  not  restrain  his  enthusiasm  when  he  contem- 
plates this  achievement.  "  I  cannot  help  think- 
"  ing,  "says  he,  "while  I  dwell  upon  them,  that 
"  this  discovery  of  magneto-electricity  is  the 
"  greatest  experimental  result  ever  obtained  by 
"  an  investigator.  It  is  the  Mont  Blanc  of  Far- 
"  aday's  own  achievements.  He  always  worked 
"  at  great  elevations,  but  higher  than  this  he  never 
"subsequently  attained."* 

Let  us  accept  the  standard,  and  apply  it  to 
Henry;  let  the  achievement  measure  the  power 
of  the  man. 

In  November,  1831,  Faraday  read  before  the 
Eoyal  Society  his  memorable  paper  "On  the 
Evolution  of  Electricity  from  Magnetism," 
illustrated  by  drawings  of  the  apparatus,  in 
which  Figure  1  is  the  compound  "spool,"  dis- 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  A. 


12  PROFESSOR    HENRY  AND  THE 

covered  by  Henry  in  1828,  and  which  Faraday 
used  in  making  his  discovery.*  No  publica- 
tion referring  to  this  paper  had  reached  this 
country  till  April,  1832,  when  a  vague  reference, 
made  to  it  in  the  "Annals  of  Philosophy,"  was  seen 
by  Henry,  which  led  to  his  publication  of  July,  in 
"  Sillimari's  Journal"  where  he  gave  a  full  ac- 
count of  this  great  discovery,  made  by  himself 
before  he  heard  of  Faraday's  work,  which,  when 
compared  with  Faraday's  paper  of  November, 
exhibits  Faraday's  experiment  for  solving  the 
problem.  When  he  wrote  his  paper,  Henry, 
mislead  by  the  imperfect  statement  in  the 
" Annals  of  Philosophy  "  supposed  that  his  experi- 
ment had  differed  from  Faraday's,  but  was  un- 
deceived when  the  full  publication  reached  him. 
In  1831,  a  teacher  in  the  Albany  Academy  was 
very  remote  from  London,  and  the  Eoyal  Society. 

In  that  same  year,  and  in  the  same  few  weeks, 
Faraday  first,  and  Henry  after  him,  independently 
made  the  discovery  of  magneto -electricity;  "the 
"  greatest  experimental  result  ever  obtained  by 
"  an  investigator,"  in  the  opinion  of  Tyndall.f 

In  the  same  field,  and  during  the  same  years, 
were  the  other  great  scientists  of  the  world,  study- 
ing the  same  subject :  Ampere,  Arago,  Oersted, 
Davy,  and  a  host  of  others;  but  these  two  did  it,  and 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  B. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  C. 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  13 

not  the  others  ;  and  Henry  did  it  by  devices  of  his 
own  invention,  unaided  by  anything  which  Faraday 
had  discovered  or  produced,  while  Faraday  used 
Henry's  electro-magnet  in  performing  his  most 
important  experiment. 

The  towering  heights  which  were  scaled  by  the 
daring  spirit  of  Faraday  from  the  East,  were  at  the 
same  time  surmounted  from  the  West  by  our  own 
countryman.  Both  were  climbing  from  opposite 
sides  at  the  same  time,  and  neither  was  conscious 
of  the  other's  efforts  till  both  stood,  face  to  face, 
upon  the  summit.  Had  Henry  been  furnished 
with  the  corps  of  trained  mountain  guides,  and 
Alpine- stocks,  such  as  attended  Faraday  in  his 
ascent,  perhaps  his  foot  would  have  first  trodden 
the  peak,  and  Prof.  Tyndall's  song  of  triumph  have 
been  addressed  to  him. 

But  when  we  compare  Henry  with  Faraday, 
who  is  the  acknowledged  unit  of  comparison,  the 
accidental  conditions  under  which  both  existed 
and  worked  must  be  known,  or  justice  cannot  be 
done.  Electrical  science  was  the  field  to  which 
both  spontaneously  directed  their  studies.  Its 
mysteries  at  once  excited  curiosity,  and  baffled  re- 
search. Its  most  obvious  phenomena  had  only  for 
a  short  time  been  recognized,  and  everything  was 
to  be  learned.  What  they  did  in  that  science,  not 
only  constitutes  the  greater  part  of  their  claims 
to  reputation  as  investigators,  but  is  almost  the 


14  PROFESSOR   HENRY   AND   THE 

whole  of  our  present  knowledge  of  magneto- elec- 
tricity. 

But  how  superior  in  every  respect,  except  in 
God-given  intellect,  was  the  equipment  of  Fara- 
day. He  was  eight  years  older  than  his  rival.  In 
the  year  1813  he  was  appointed  "assistant"  in 
the  laboratory  of  the  Royal  Institution,  under  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy,  then  one  of  the  foremost  scien- 
tists of  the  world,  who,  attracted  by  Faraday's 
genius,  was  directing  his  studies  and  forming  his 
mind.  At  that  time  Henry  was  but  THIRTEEN 

YEARS  OLD. 

In  the  next  twelve  years  Faraday  was  at 
work,  with  all  the  resources  of  the  Royal 
Institution,  under  the  instruction  of  the  great 
Davy,  in  acquiring  the  knowledge  with  which  he 
was  armed  when  he  began  his  original  investiga- 
tions ;  while  Henry,  during  that  same  period,  was 
struggling  unaided  for  such  education  as  might 
be  obtained  from  the  scanty  resources  of  a  country 
town ;  and  with  that  proud  independence,  ever 
so  marked  a  feature  of  his  character,  was  sup- 
porting himself  by  teaching  to  others  a  part  of 
that  which  he  was  learning  himself. 

In  1825,  Faraday  had  so  improved  his  great  op- 
portunities, that  at  the  age  of  thirty-four  he  was 
appointed  "director  of  the  laboratory  "  of  the  Royal 
Institution,  where  everything  that  science  could 
suggest,  and  money  procure,  was  at  his  command 


MAGNETIC    TELEGRAPH.  15 

in  aid  of  research.  Henry  was  then  a  private  tutor 
in  a  distinguished  family  at  Albany  ;  studying 
mathematics  in  hours  when  his  duties  to  his 
pupils  had  ceased,  and  when  other  young  men 
might  have  thought  they  had  earned  the  right  to 
relaxation  and  enjoyment. 

In  1824,  before  Henry  ever  had  in  his  hands 
any  instruments  for  research  in  electricity,  Fara- 
day, thus  trained  and  equipped,  began  his  attack 
upon  the  problem  of  magneto- electricity  and 
failed  ;  and  in  1830  it  was  not  yet  solved. 

The  discoveries  of  deductive  science  need  no  ap- 
paratus. They  are  made  and  matured  in  the 
brain ;  and  to  record  them  is  the  only  physical 
incident  to  their  existence  or  development. 
Plato  would  have  looked  with  disgust  and 
contempt  upon  a  laboratory ;  and  would  have 
scorned  the  suggestion  that  time,  or  place,  or 
physical  surroundings,  could  affect  the  workings 
of  his  mind,  or  influence  his  deductions.  But  the 
new  philosophy,  which  has  changed  the  face  of  the 
world,  is  of  no  such  ethereal  nature.  It  is  born  in 
observation  of  physical  things;  it  is  nurtured  upon 
experiments  that  cost  money,  and  time,  and  labor; 
its  maturity  is  in  perfected  arts,  and  in  things 
to  be  seen,  and  handled,  and  enjoyed  by  the 
senses;  its  end  is  to  subordinate  the  blind  forces  of 
nature  to  the  uses  of  man — to  mitigate  the  ills,  and 
multiply  the  joys  of  life.  They  who  are  the  ser- 


16  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

vants  of  this  philosophy,  must  be  provided  with 
materials  with  which  to  reproduce,  in  miniature, 
the  conditions  that  exist  in  nature  in  grander  pro- 
portions, or  they  cannot  ask  the  questions  whose 
answers  they  are  seeking;  and,  other  things  being 
equal,  he  who  is  well  provided  with  all  these  need- 
ful things,  has  an  immense  advantage  over  another 
who  lacks  them. 

For  thirteen  years  Faraday  had  been  pursuing  his 
investigations  amply  supplied,  and  was  in  the  full 
career  of  successful  experiment  when,  in  1826,  his 
great  rival  first  looked  upon  the  course  over  which 
he  was  to  run ;  and  even  then  Henry  had  to  depend 
upon  the  meagre  facilities  of  the  Albany  Academy, 
and  the  voluntary  assistance  of  an  appreciative 
physician,  Dr.  Philip  Ten  Eyck,  of  Albany — a 
name  to  be  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  all 
who  feel  a  pride  in  the  achievements  of  the  great 
scientist,  whose  early  efforts  were  assisted,  and 
whose  hopes  encouraged,  by  this  enlightened 
friend. 

With  such  a  beginning  as  this,  who  could  expect 
that  the  young  aspirant  for  fame  should  ever 
overtake  his  great  leader  in  the  friendly  contest  ? 
And  when  he  did  overtake  him,  and  in  some  im- 
portant investigations  surpass  him,  who  shah1  deny 
that  Henry,  as  a  physical  investigator,  was  the 
equal  of  him  above  whom  it  is  conceded  no  other 
man  has  risen  in  this  century ! 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  17 

In  still  further  pursuing  his  researches  into  the 
subtle  phenomena  of  electricity,  Henry  made,  here 
in  Princeton,  another  capital  discovery,  this  time 
in  advance  of  Faraday,  which  forms  an  important 
element  in  the  science  of  electricity.  It  is  to 
be  found  detailed  in  any  school  book,  under  the 
name  of  "  Henry's  Coils."  His  wonderfully  elab- 
orate investigations  will  be  remembered  by  the 
students  of  that  day;  as  it  was  conducted  in  part 
in  the  open  air.  Wires  stretched  across  the  cam- 
pus, in  front  and  in  rear  of  Nassau  Hall,  were 
the  means  by  which  the  questioner  was  cross- 
examining  nature,  and  wresting  from  her  reluct- 
ant grasp  her  hidden  secrets.  At  that  time  tele- 
graph wires  did  not  exist;  and  those  fine  lines 
traced  across  the  sky,  excited  the  liveliest  interest 
in  the  students,  whose  fantastic  guesses  as  to  their 
significance  were  the  cause  of  much  pleasantry  in 
the  idle  hours. 

In  the  course  of  these  investigations  it  was  also 
the  good  fortune  of  our  scientist  to  first  discover 
the  very  curious  phenomenon  of  "self  induction," 
as  it  is  now  called,  which  plays  so  important  a 
part  in  the  creation  and  use  of  electric  currents  on 
wires,  sometimes  injuriously  and  sometimes  ben- 
eficially. Without  the  knowledge  of  its  laws  no 
duplex  or  quadruplex  telegraph  could  be  practically 
operated;  with  that  knowledge  it  can  be  neutral- 
ized when  it  is  injurious,  and  made  available  when 


18  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

useful.  The  brilliant  spark  which  follows  the 
pulling  of  the  pendant,  attached  to  an  electric 
lighter  for  inflaming  a  gas  jet,  now  in  common 
use,  is  one  of  the  valuable  practical  applications 
of  this  principle  so  discovered. 

In  contemplating  the  discoveries  of  the  scientist 
there  are  two  aspects  in  which  they  present  them- 
selves. In  one  view  we  consider  merely  the  diffi- 
culty of  the  achievement;  in  the  other,  the  value 
of  the  result  to  mankind.  The  first  view  is  ob- 
vious when  the  thing  is  done;  the  other  is  to  be  re- 
served fora  future  day,  when  all  the  consequences 
have  followed  the  original  cause.  The  first  view 
is  that  which  measures  the  power  of  the  man — 
just  as  the  lifting  of  a  huge  weight  by  some  Her- 
cules exhibits  his  strength,  even  though  the 
thing  done  may  be,  or  may  seem  to  be,  useless. 
The  capital  discoveries  I  have  named,  made  by 
Henry  and  Faraday,  exhibited  the  giant's  strength 
when  they  were  made,  and  measured  the  men 
who  made  them.  They  were  found  at  great 
depths  below  the  surface,  where  mental  vision  can 
only  penetrate  by  the  aid  of  lenses,  constructed  in 
advance,  in  accordance  with  the  very  laws  for 
whose  discovery  they  are  needed — creations  of  the 
scientific  imagination,  and  called  scientific  hy- 
potheses. In  such  creations  Professor  Henry  was 
excelled  by  no  man. 

Time  will  not  permit  even  a  hasty  review  of  all 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  19 

the  scientific  labor  done  by  Professor  Henry  at 
Princeton,  during  those  years  when  his  chief  duties 
were  instruction,  and  when  he  had  only  a  portion 
of  his  time  in  which  to  work  for  mankind  and  for 
reputation  ;  and  I  must  be  content  with  a  passing 
glance  at  a  part  of  it. 

Among  those  wires  which  were  strung  across 
the  campus  in  1835,  was  one  used  for  a  mag- 
netic telegraph  between  the  professor's  home  and 
his  laboratory  in  the  Philosophic  Hall;  and  that 
telegraph  line  was  the  first  in  the  world  in  which 
the  galvanic  circuit  was  completed  through  the 
earth— one  end  of  the  single  wire-circuit  ter- 
minating in  the  well  at  the  house,  and  the  other 
in  the  earth  at  the  Hall.  Steinheil,  in  Munich, 
in  1837,  worked  his  electric  telegraph  in  the 
same  way  by  a  single  line  wire,  using  the  earth 
as  part  of  the  circuit,  over  much  longer  distances; 
but  it  was  first  done  in  this  campus. 

Nearly  a  century  earlier  our  great  countryman, 
Franklin,  had  drawn  from  a  surcharged  thunder- 
cloud, upon  the  string  of  a  kite,  in  a  pouring  shower 
of  rain,  the  lightning  of  heaven,  and  had  demon- 
strated its  identity  with  the  puny  spark  of  an 
electrical  machine;  and  with  that  capital  experi- 
ment his  fame  is  more  closely  associated  than  with 
any  other  of  the  great  truths  he  discovered.  In 
these  grounds  that  experiment  was  amplified,  and 
still  further  results  obtained,  by  the  man  for 


20  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND  THE 

whom  the  mantle  of  Franklin  had  been  waiting 
all  those  years,  and  who  was  the  only  American 
whose  stature  would  not  have  been  dwarfed  by 
assuming  it. 

From  the  clear,  blue  sky,  with  two  kites,  one 
above  and  assisting  the  other,  held  by  a  delicate 
wire  wound  on  an  insulated  reel,  Professor  Henry 
drew  down  streams  of  brilliant  sparks,  intensified 
by  the  self-induction  of  the  wire  itself;  thus  prov- 
ing the  electrical  relations  of  the  earth  and  its 
envelope.  So,  a  child's  plaything  in  the  hands 
of  a  master,  reveals  the  hidden  mysteries  of  the 
universe. 

Away  beyond  the  distant  horizon  we  see  at 
times  a  quivering  illumination  of  the  sky,  but  hear 
no  thunder.  How  shall  that  phenomenon  be  ques- 
tioned ?  Fifty  years  ago,  Henry  converted  the 
metallic  roof  of  his  house  into  a  great  induc- 
tive plate,  by  soldering  to  it  a  copper  wire,  and  lead- 
ing that  through  an  electro-magnetic  coil  to  the 
ground;  and  with  that  he  held  converse  with  the 
distant  lightning,  so  far  away  that  its  voice  could 
not  be  heard.  If  the  gods  of  mythology,  who 
hurl  their  thunderbolts,  have  a  system  in  their 
signals,  this  apparatus  would  enable  us  to  read 
their  thoughts.  Within  a  few  months,  a  de- 
vice has  been  put  into  operation  by  which  tele- 
graphic communication  is  kept  up  between  the 
running  cars  on  railroads  and  the  stations,  so 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  21 

that  the  positions  of  all  the  trains  may  at  any 
time  be  known,  and  protection  against  collisions 
assured.  To  do  this  the  metallic  roof  of  the  car 
is  used  as  an  inductive  plate,  just  as  was  the  house 
roof  fifty  years  ago;  and  a  wire  passes  from 
it  through  a  signaling  coil  to  the  ground  by  way 
of  the  metal  wheels  and  track.  Near  the  roof 
outside,  an  electric  wire  is  stretched  on  poles, 
through  which  electric  flashes,  like  lightning,  are 
sent,  and  they  set  up  by  induction  in  the  roof 
electric  currents  similar  to  those  passing  over  the 
wire,  which  are  read  as  signals  by  the  observer; 
and,  conversely,  signals  are  sent  from  the  roof  to 
the  wire  by  induction  coils  in  the  car.  The  ex- 
perimental demonstration  in  Princeton  has  not  been 
lost,  though  buried  so  long,  and  to-day  it  throws 
another  safeguard  around  our  lives.* 

The  first  electro-magnetic  engine  for  generating 
power  was  made  by  Henry,  at  Albany,  in  1831.f 
His  clear  mind  was  not  deluded  into  the  belief 
that  such  an  apparatus  could  supersede  the  steam 
engine  as  an  economical  motor,  and  he  warned  the 
world  against  that  delusion.  Zinc,  as  fuel  in  a  bat- 
tery, is  more  costly  than  coal  in  a  furnace.  Still, 
he  saw  and  said  that  in  exceptional  cases  it  might 
be  useful;  a  result  now  coming  to  pass,  dependent, 
however,  upon  the  discovery  of  magneto  electricity 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  D. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  E. 


PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 


by  which  galvanic  batteries  are  dispensed  with, 
and  electricity,  made  in  quantities  from  some 
great  and  economical  source  of  power,  is  distrib- 
uted to  Henry's  machines  wherever  they  may  be. 

In  many  volumes,  some  of  which  have  perished 
by  fire,  and  some  remain,  were  laid  out  lines  and 
plans  of  investigation  by  Professor  Henry,  needing 
only  leisure  and  means  for  their  development, 
covering  fields  where  other  investigators  have 
since  reaped  rich  harvests  of  fame,  but  from  which 
he  was  debarred  by  the  pressure  of  his  other  occu- 
pations here.  In  those  records  are  contained  the 
evidence  that  the  great  intellect,  which  did  so  much 
with  so  little,  was  capable  of  grasping  the  whole 
circle  of  physical  science,  and  of  enriching  and 
adorning  any  department  of  it  to  which  his  efforts 
might  be  directed. 

But  he  was  destined  for  another  career.  A  be- 
nevolent Englishman,  inspired  by  the  noble  ambi- 
tion to  aid  in  elevating  mankind,  had  bequeathed 
to  the  United  States  a  great  sum  of  money  to  be 
used  for  "  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge 
among  men."  It  was  a  splendid  gift,  and  a  sacred 
trust.  Who  was  to  be  found  equal  to  the  task  of 
effecting  this  grand  purpose  ?  The  civilized  world 
was  interested  in  that  question.  Mankind  was  the 
beneficiary  of  the  trust;  and  all  men  were  entitled 
to  be  considered  in  its  administration.  By  the 
common  consent  of  the  wisest  and  best  of  Europe 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  23 

and  America,  Professor  Henry  of  Princeton  Col- 
lege was  selected,  and  solicited  to  assume  that 
onerous  duty.  What  tribute  was  that  to  the 
achievements,  the  attainments,  and  the  character 
of  the  man  !  He  must  be  famous,  that  his  selec- 
tion might  at  once  command  the  assent  of  the 
world  ;  he  must  be  learned,  that  he  might  be  able 
to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  the  donor;  and  he 
must  be  virtuous,  that  he  should  not  degrade  the 
high  office  to  any  base  or  selfish  uses.  And  thus 
he  was  called. 

When  brought  to  the  parting  of  the  roads,  choice 
was  extremely  difficult.  On  the  one  hand,  a  life 
devoted  to  the  most  delightful  of  all  pursuits — the 
searching  out  the  laws  of  nature,  which  are  the 
thoughts  of  God ;  a  reputation  already  great  and 
daily  growing  ;  and  a  happy  home,  surrounded  by 
congenial  and  loving  friends,  and  undisturbed  by 
cares  for  the  present  or  the  future.  On  the  other 
hand,  an  abandonment  of  the  field  of  scientific 
research,  where  the  harvest  was  abundant  and  the 
laborers  few ;  and  a  surrender  to  others  of  the 
prizes  he  saw  glittering  before  him  in  the  race 
he  was  running  ;  and  furthermore,  a  grapple  with 
the  problems  of  organization  and  finance,  and 
with  the  discordant  elements  which  the  scheme  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institution  would  necessarily 
evoke.  He  foresaw  that  he  might  find  himself,  after 
some  years  had  passed,  like  a  giant  shorn  of  his 


24  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND  THE 

strength;  on  the  one  side  outrun  in  the  race  where 
he  had  ever  been  in  the  lead;  and  on  the  other  so 
hampered  and  crippled  as  to  be  unable  to  accom- 
plish the  great  objects  for  which  alone  he  was 
about  to  abandon  his  first  love.  That  high  sense 
of  duty  which  governed  him  in  every  act  of  his 
life  decided  the  question,  notwithstanding  his  firm 
conviction  that  in  accepting  the  trust  he  left  the 
happiest  days  of  his  life  in  the  past. 

Perhaps  he  might  have  decided  otherwise  if 
Princeton  College  had  been  then  as  it  is  now.  Per- 
haps he  then  might  have  felt,  that  with  such 
ample  resources  at  his  command  as  are  now  to 
be  found  here,  his  services  to  humanity  might 
be  greater  as  a  soldier  in  the  ranks  than  as  a 
commander  in  the  field.  But  at  that  time  no  one 
had  arisen  among  the  friends  of  this  institution 
who,  like  the  Medici  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was 
able  at  the  same  time  to  gather  the  wealth  of  the 
world  by  the  arts  of  honorable  commerce,  and  to 
appreciate  that  the  gathered  wealth  of  the  world 
owes  its  existence  and  preservation  to  science,  to 
art,  and  to  literature  ;  and  that  therefore  it  is  due 
to  education  that  it  should  be  encouraged  by 
noble  gifts,  such  as  have  enlarged  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  and  re- 
flected honor  upon  the  names  of  those  whose  gen- 
erous hearts,  guided  by  wisdom,  have  led  them  to 
broaden  these  ancient  foundations,  and  to  arm 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  25 

with  improved  facilities  the  workers  who  are  here 
devoting  their  lives  to  the  advancement  of  knowl- 
edge. All  honor  to  such  men.*  Had  such  assist- 
ance come  earlier,  the  career  of  the  great  scientist 
might  have  been  different ;  but  it  was  not  to  be, 
and  thenceforth  another  life  opened  before  him, 
and  another  man  was  unfolded  to  the  world. 

Perhaps  the  highest  praise  that  can  be  bestowed 
upon  any  man,  is  to  say  of  him  that  he  is  just 
equal  to  all  the  duties  ever  imposed  upon  him, 
and  never  above  them ;  that  his  reserves  are 
not  called  into  action  until  the  emergency  re- 
quires them.  Such  men  are  the  great  benefactors 
of  mankind.  Such  a  man  was  the  Secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution.  The  principles  he  laid 
down  for  the  administration  of  the  noble  gift  of 
Smithson  required  time  for  their  development, 
and  promised  no  present  brilliant  results.  The 
foundations  were  to  be  laid  deep  in  the  earth, 
where  the  laborer  and  his  work  were  scarcely 
to  be  seen  by  the  passer-by.  No  popular  ap- 
plause would  greet  the  achievement  for  years 
to  come,  while  popular  clamor  was  ever 
ready  to  cry  out  against  the  waste  of  time  and 
money  that  produced  no  instant  fruits.  ^The 
man  of  clear  purpose  and  resolute  will  stood  guard 
over  the  work;  and  with  just  force  enough,  and 
no  more,  drove  off  the  assailants  till  the  foundations 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  F. 


26  PROFESSOR   HENRY  AND   THE 

were  all  secure,  the  superstructure  begun,  and  it 
was  strong  enough  to  stand  alonej 

With  the  skill  that  would  have  adorned  a  pro- 
fessional diplomatist,  he  temporized  and  compro- 
mised, when  he  could  no  longer  contend  with  suc- 
cess ;  with  the  dash  that  would  have  illustrated 
a  general,  he  attacked  when  the  moment  was  pro- 
pitious, and  the  adversary  off  his  guard.  With 
the  earnestness  of  sincere  conviction,  and  the 
directness  of  demonstration  with  which  his  scien- 
tific training  had  armed  him,  he  convinced,  one 
by  one,  those  who  opposed  his  views,  until  at  last 
the  Eegents  of  the  Institution,  and  Congress,  sur- 
rendered their  judgments  to  his,  and  the  field  was 
won. 

A  great  library  was  the  dream  of  Mr.  Choate,  the 
most  scholarly  and  persuasive  of  advocates;  and, 
as  a  regent,  he  possessed  and  wielded  a  formidable 
power.  It  was  hard  to  persuade  him  that  a  li- 
brary does  not  "increase  knowledge  among 
men,"  and  that  it  is  very  likely  to  "diffuse"  igno- 
rance. To  discover  and  accumulate  new  truths, 
and  to  diffuse  them  over  the  whole  earth,  was  the 
Secretary's  conception  of  the  donor's  intention;  to 
pile  up  in  Washington  a  miscellaneous  collec- 
tion in  print  of  old  truths  and  old  errors,  was  the 
idea  of  the  scholars;  and  they  were  so  strong  that 
a  temporary  compromise  was  necessary.  The 
vigorous  growth  of  the  true  conception  at  last 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  27 

overshadowed  the  false  one,  and  the  library  no 
longer  saps  the  life  of  the  Institution.  Professor 
Henry  always  thought  that  over  every  library 
portal  should  be  written  some  such  warning  as — 
"  Cave  Canem  " — beware  of  the  lies. 

It  was  not  till  1852  that  the  serious  attacks  upon 
the  Smithsonian  came  to  an  end.  On  the  24th 
of  June,  of  that  year,  a  United  States  Agricul- 
tural Convention  met  in  the  theatre  of  the 
Smithsonian  building.  The  plan  to  plunder  the 
Institution  seems  to  have  been  carefully  considered 
and  matured  ;  and  the  officers  of  the  Smithsonian 
were  elected  members  of  the  convention.  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  was  at  that  time  at  the  height 
of  his  power.  He  had  risen  from  the  ranks  by 
the  arts  of  the  politician,  and  was  the  most  influen- 
tial man  in  the  Democratic  party  of  that  day. 
Although  not  yet  forty  years  old,  he  had  just 
succeeded  in  defeating  General  Cass  in  a  contest 
for  the  presidential  nomination  at  Baltimore  ;  and 
although  he  failed  by  a  few  votes  to  secure  it,  he 
had  thrown  it  to  Franklin  Pierce,  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  thus  kept  it  open  for  himself  in  1856, 
as  the  Western  candidate  of  the  party. 

He  was  styled  the  "  Little  Giant " — not  in  deris- 
ion, but  in  admiration;  as  expressing  the  combi- 
nation of  a  small  stature  and  great  intellect. 
Eepresenting  in  the  convention  what  was  then 
an  almost  entirely  agricultural  constituency,  he 


28  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

thought  that  votes  were  to  be  got,  and  his  influence 
strengthened,  if  he  could  bring  home  to  them  the 
spoils  of  the  Smithsonian;  and  accordingly  a  reso- 
lution was  introduced  petitioning  Congress  to 
appropriate  a  portion  of  the  Smithsonian  money 
for  an  agricultural  bureau ;  and  Judge  Douglas 
undertook  the  congenial  task  of  accomplishing 
the  raid.  The  recollections  of  that  battle  are 
among  the  valued  treasures  of  memory,  asso- 
ciated in  my  mind  with  Joseph  Henry.  In  such 
an  assemblage,  and  with  such  a  cause,  Douglas 
was  an  adversary  to  be  feared  by  any  man. 
That  he  was  an  accomplished  politician  was 
proved  by  his  great  success  ;  and  he  was  there 
to  fix  another  step  in  the  ladder  by  which  he  had 
climbed  so  high.  His  speech  was  adroit,  as  only 
he  could  make  it.  Its  argument  was  founded  upon 
the  proposition  that  civilized  man  depends  upon 
agriculture,  without  which  barbarism  would  sweep 
over  the  land;  and  his  conclusion  was  that  the 
farmer  was  entitled  to  whatever  assistance  could  be 
got  out  of  the  money  of  Smithson,  whose  benevo- 
lence could  best  be  applied  in  encouraging  those 
who  were,  at  the  very  foundations  of  civilization. 
It  would  be  great  injustice  to  Judge  Douglas  to 
assume  that  he  supposed  the  diffusion  of  papers  of 
turnip  seed  among  farmers  was  that  sort  of  "  in- 
' '  crease  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men  " 
designed  by  Mr.  Smithson  ;  but  no  doubt  it  would 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  29 

be  an  increase  and  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  that 
he  was  the  friend  of  the  farmer,  and  that  was 
of  more  importance  to  him.  The  Secretary,  sur- 
rounded by  a  few  earnest  friends,  and  prepared 
for  the  assault,  sat  in  the  back  seat  of  the 
theatre  quite  unnoticed,  kindling  with  righteous 
indignation  at  this  nefarious  plot  to  confiscate 
the  funds  of  which  he  was  the  chosen  guardian, 
and  to  destroy  the  institution  devised  by  his  intel- 
lect, reared  by  his  unceasing  efforts,  and  guarded 
so  far  by  his  sleepless  vigilance. 

When  the  popular  applause  following  the 
"  Little  Giant's  "  popular  speech  had  subsided, 
the  Secretary  arose.  In  measured  and  digni- 
fied words  he  presented  himself  as  the  guard- 
ian of  that  fund,  bound,  so  far  as  in  him  lay, 
to  defend  it  from  spoliation.  He  first  developed 
the  moral  aspects  of  the  question,  and  appealed, 
over  the  head  of  the  advocate,  to  the  honesty 
of  the  constituents  he  represented ;  expressing  the 
most  generous  confidence  that  the  farmers  of  this 
country  would  never  consciously  be  parties  in  an 
attempt  to  seize  that  which  belonged  to  mankind 
in  general,  or  seek  by  a  forcible  partition  to  destroy 
the  unity  and  efficiency  of  the  fund. 

The  legal  aspect  of  the  question  he  next  dis- 
cussed like  an  equity  lawyer ;  and  denounced  in 
scornful  sentences  that  attempted  breach  of  trust 
which  was  implied  in  the  resolution. 


30  PROFESSOR  HENRY   AND  THE 

And  then,  out  of  the  fullness  of  his  knowledge, 
with  abundance  of  illustration  and  example,  he 
demonstrated  that  the  discovery  of  new  truths, 
and  their  application  to  the  arts,  had  elevated  the 
farmers  from  the  mere  drudges  they  were  in  the 
seventeenth  century  to  their  present  high  state  of 
intelligence  and  comfort. 

The  effect  was  overwhelming  ;  and  the  "  Little 
Giant "  must  have  felt  that  there  was  another 
"giant"  there  to  whose  title  no  diminutive  prefix 
could  be  properly  applied. 

The  meeting  adjourned  till  the  next  day,  and 
these  significant  words  were  written  in  the  Secre- 
tary's diary,  under  date  of  June  25  :  "Judge 
"  Douglas,  toward  the  close,  made  an  apology  for 
"  the  warmth  of  his  expressions.  I  did  the  same. 
"  Judge  Rusk  followed — so  the  whole  was  am- 
"  icably  settled." 

Since  that  day  no  further  assaults  have  been 
made  on  the  Smithsonian  Institution;  and  it 
stands  a  proud  monument  to  the  genius,  the 
learning,  the  labor,  and  the  character  of  the  great 
Secretary;  who  was  content  to  sink  his  personality 
in  the  impersonal  institution — to  be  overshadowed 
by  the  creature  of  his  own  creation,  in  order  that 
true  knowledge  might  the  better  be  increased  and 
diffused  among  men. 

The  conscientious  obligation  he  felt  pressing 
upon  him  to  lose  no  opportunity  for  diffusing 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  31 

knowledge  and  correcting  error,  imposed  a  vast 
amount  of  unrecognized  and  unrequited  labor. 
The  intellectually  halt,  and  lame,  and  blind,  con- 
tinually resorted  to  him  for  help,  either  in  person 
or  by  letter  ;  and  they  never  were  sent  away 
empty.  Like  the  home  of  the  lovely  country  parson 
in  the  Deserted  Village, 

"  His  house  was  known  to  all  the  vagrant  train  ; 
He  chid  their  wanderings,  but  reliev'd  their  pain." 

They  who  have  witnessed  some  of  those  deeds 
of  charity,  will  never  forget  the  gentle  patience 
with  which  he  listened  to  the  beggars  for  knowl- 
edge, and  the  simple  way  in  which  he  conveyed  to 
their  imperfect  intelligences  the  truths  they  were 
seeking.  Their  self-conceit  was  often  offensive  ; 
but  he  knew  it  was  the  product  of  ignorance,  and 
his  effort  was  to  cure  the  disorder.  He  was  no 
more  repelled  by  the  disagreeable  symptoms,  than 
the  physician  is  who  must  treat  a  loathsome  disease. 
On  one  occasion,  in  my  presence,  one  of  these  crip- 
ples refused  to  accept  the  instructions  of  the  great 
physicist,  on  a  very  simple  question  of  dynamics, 
applicable  to  a  project  he  had  in  hand;  but  instead  of 
dismissing  him,  the  master  quietly  took  down  "Hut- 
ton"  from  the  book-case,  and  patiently  read  that 
author's  confirmation  of  the  law  he  had  been  teach- 
ing. What  an  exhibition  of  true  humility  !  Per- 
haps, thought  he,  "  I  can  give  a  new  direction  to  this 


PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 


"  man's  mind,  who  may  yet  do  something  useful ; 
"  and  what  matters  it  that  he  scorns  me." 

No  one  can  form  an  adequate  estimate  of  the  vast- 
ness  of  his  mind,  of  the  extent  and  accuracy  of  his 
learning,  and  of  his  power  to  discern  the  correla- 
tions of  knowledge,  who  has  not  carefully  read 
the  instructions  mapped  out  by  him  for  the  guid- 
ance of  investigators  working  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  They  constitute  a 
set  of  charts,  which,  for  years  to  come,  will  guide 
the  explorer  safely  and  surely  in  future  voyages 
for  the  discovery  of  new  truths ;  and  are  a  monu- 
ment, attesting  the  fidelity  with  which  the  great 
trust  was  executed,  and  vindicating  the  sagacity  of 
those  eminent  men,  who,  in  1846,  saw,  what  his 
innate  modesty  forbade  him  to  see,  that  Joseph 
Henry  was,  of  all  living  men,  the  most  fit  to  ad- 
minister a  fund  whose  object  was  "the  increase 
"and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men." 

Passing  by  thus  hastily  the  great  achievements 
illustrating  the  long  and  happy  life  of  Henry, 
let  us  examine  with  more  particularity  his  connec- 
tion with  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph;  whose 
creation  has  so  largely  modified  the  course  of  mod- 
ern civilization,  and  endowed  the  dull  earth  with 
nerves,  like  those  of  the  living  frame,  whereby  the 
whole  body  of  mankind  instantly  feels  the  joys  or 
sorrows  of  any  of  its  members. 

How  to  communicate  intelligence  instantly,  over 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  33 

distances  so  great  that  the  voice  cannot  be  heard, 
had  been  well  known  to  organized  societies  from 
remote  antiquity.  Visible  signals,  made  by  mov- 
ing vanes  by  day,  and  lighted  torches  by  night, 
were  known  to  Greeks  and  Eomans  alike;  and 
more  recently  the  alphabet  was  associated  with 
these  movements,  so  that  alphabetical  messages 
were  freely  communicated. 

Even  barbarous  nations  and  tribes  possessed  this 
art  in  a  high  degree  of  perfection;  and  the  arrival 
and  progress  of  Cortes  in  Mexico  were  communi- 
cated by  telegraphic  signals,  corresponding  with 
the  sign  language  of  the  Aztecs,  to  the  capital  of 
the  doomed  Montezuma. 

When  atmospheric  electricity  came  to  be  artifi- 
cially generated,  it  occurred  at  once  to  ingenious 
men  that  it  might  be  used  for  telegraphy;  and,  in 
1774,  the  first  electric  telegraph  ever  constructed 
was  established  at  Geneva  by  Lesage.  He  used 
twenty -four  wires,  each  connected  with  an  electro- 
scope, whose  function  it  is  to  move  when  the  wire 
is  charged  with  electricity,  and  by  means  of 
which  any  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  could 
be  transmitted,  by  simply  discharging  a  prime 
conductor  of  an  electrical  machine  into  the 
wire  corresponding  to  that  letter.  This  com- 
plicated apparatus  was  subsequently  improved 
by  using  only  one  wire,  and  causing  lettered 
wheels  to  revolve  synchronously  at  the  two  sta- 


34  PROFESSOR   HENRY   AND   THE 

tions,  so  that  the  same  letter  would  appear  at 
the  same  time  to  both  operators.  By  this  appara- 
tus, whose  principle  of  synchronous  revolution  is 
the  same  as  that  now  used  in  the  printing  tele- 
graph, the  sender  would  simply  close  the  circuit 
on  his  electrical  machine  when  his  revolving 
wheel  presented  the  desired  letter,  and  the  pith-ball 
electroscope,  moving  at  the  receiving  end  at  the 
same  instant,  would  indicate  to  the  receiver  that 
the  letter  then  presenting  itself  to  him  on  his 
wheel  was  the  one  intended. 

A  number  of  other  inventors  used  static  elec- 
tricity for  the  same  purpose  during  the  latter  years 
of  the  last  century,  and  the  earlier  ones  of  this. 
In  England,  Ronalds  had  a  line  of  eight  miles 
on  which  the  wire  was  suspended  from  poles, 
and  insulated  by  silken  strings;*  and  in  1796, 
Salva,  in  Spain,  worked  a  line  by  static  electricity 
twenty-six  miles  long.f 

In  the  year  1800  Volta  produced  the  voltaic  pile, 
and  gave  to  the  world  that  new  manifestation  of 
electricity  called  galvanism.  In  that  form  this 
subtle  agent  is  far  more  manageable  than  in 
the  form  of  static  electricity;  and  by  the  use  of 
galvanic  batteries  a  current  of  low  tension,  but 
of  enormously  greater  power,  can  be  maintained 
with  little  difficulty;  whereas  static  electricity 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  G. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  H. 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH.  35 

is  like  lightning,  and  readily  leaps  and  escapes 
from  the  surfaces  on  which  it  is  confined.  The 
galvanic  current  also  readily  decomposes  acid- 
ulated water,  and  many  other  substances,  and 
this  capacity  was  soon  applied  to  the  purposes  of 
telegraphy.  Scemering,  in  1807,  invented  a  tele- 
graph on  this  plan,  and  continued  it  for  several 
years  in  Munich,  publishing  accounts  of  it  in  sci- 
entific journals,  and  exhibiting  it  to  learned  socie- 
ties.* Others  followed  his  lead,  until  finally  it 
came  into  commercial  use  in  England  in  1846  as  a 
rival  to  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph  of  later 
invention  ;  but  requiring  its  aid,  as  an  alarm.f 

In  1820,  Oersted  discovered  the  capital  fact  that 
a  galvanic  current,  passing  through  a  wire  placed 
horizontally  above,  and  parallel  to,  an  ordinary 
compass  needle,  will  cause  that  needle  to  sway  on 
its  axis  to  the  east  or  west,  according  to  the  direc- 
tion of  the  current  through  the  wire.  At  once 
Ampere  suggested  the  application  of  the  new  dis- 
covery to  the  old  telegraph,  whereby  galvanism 
might  be  substituted  for  static  electricity,  and 
the  deflection  of  a  magnetic  needle  for  the  diver- 
gence of  the  pith  balls  of  the  electroscope.  Baron 
Schilling,  a  Eussian  nobleman,  inspired  by  the  love 
of  science,  accordingly  took  up  this  suggestion, 
and  constructed  a  galvanometer  or  needle  tele- 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  I. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  K. 


36  PROFESSOR  HENRY   AND   THE 

graph,  which  in  a  practical  and  operative  form 
was  exhibited  to  the  Emperor  Alexander  in  1824, 
and  came  to  be  well  known  to  scientific  persons 
at  that  time.* 

In  1833,  Gauss  and  Weber  set  up  a  single  circuit 
galvanometer  telegraph  on  this  plan  at  Gottengen, 
leading  the  wire  over  the  house-tops,  on  insula- 
tors, as  we  do  now;  and  by  the  deflections  of  the 
needle  to  the  right  and  left  made  up  the  alphabet, 
as  it  had  been  done  before  when  using  other  means 
for  moving  the  vanes,  f 

Their  apparatus,  however,  is  perfectly  silent. 
The  needle  is  suspended  by  a  thread  when  the  noise- 
less current  sways  it  to  and  fro  with  but  feeble 
force;  and  it  is  incapable  of  calling  the  attention  of 
the  operator  to  receive  its  message.  These  were 
serious  difficulties,  to  be  overcome  by  other  princi- 
ples, and  other  inventions,  which  would  supersede 
this  one. 

Following  Oersted,  Arago,  in  France,  in  1820, 
made  the  next  capital  discovery.  It  was  but 
a  little  thing  he  saw — simply  that  a  sewing  needle, 
surrounded  by  a  coil  of  wire,  through  which  a  vol- 
taic current  passed,  had  become  magnetic;  but  that 
little  thing  has  grown  to  be  mighty.  This  obser- 
vation was  the  complete  discovery  of  electro-mag- 
netism, which  had  been  dimly  seen  in  Oersted's  gal- 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  L. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  M. 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH.  37 

variometer;  and  was  the  germ  of  the  electro-mag- 
net. For  four  years  this  beautiful  discovery  was 
experimented  with  by  all  the  scientists  in  Europe 
before  another  step  was  taken;  and  then  William 
Sturgeon,  of  England,  produced  the  electro-magnet. 
It  consisted  of  a  large  soft  iron  wire,  bent  into 
a  horse-shoe  form,  coated  with  varnish,  and 
wrapped  with  a  spiral  coil  of  naked  copper  wire 
from  end  to  end,  through  which  the  voltaic  cur- 
rent might  be  passed.  This  bent  wire  became  a 
magnet  while  the  current  flowed,  but  lost  its  mag- 
netism when  the  current  ceased. 

Here  then  was  born  into  the  world  an  apparatus 
capable  of  exerting  a  stronger  power  at  the  will  of 
the  operator,  by  merely  opening  and  closing  the 
voltaic  circuit;  and  it  was  then  thought  that  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  telegraph  were  con- 
quered. The  experiment  was  soon  tried  with 
Sturgeon's  magnet  by  Barlow,  an  eminent  scien- 
tist ;  and  in  January,  1825,  he  published  his  results 
in  the  "Edinburgh  Philosophical  Journal"  in 
these  words: 

"  The  details  of  this  contrivance"  (a  telegraph) 
"  are  so  obvious,  and  the  principle  on  which  it  is 
"  founded  so  well  understood,  that  there  was  only 
"  one  question  which  could  render  the  result 
"  doubtful;  and  this  was,  is  there  any  diminu- 
"  tion  of  effect  by  lengthening  the  conducting 


38  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

"wire?"  If  not,  he  proceeds  to  say:  "Then  no 
"  question  could  be  entertained  of  the  practicabil- 
"  ity  and  utility  of  the  suggestion  above  adverted 
"to.  I  was,  therefore,  induced  to  make  the 
"  trial;  but  I  found  such  a  sensible  diminution 
"  with  only  two  hundred  feet  of  wire,  as  at  once 
"  to  convince  me  of  the  impracticability  of  the 
"  scheme." 

Barlow's  experiment  was  repeated  by  other  scien- 
tists in  that  and  following  years  with  a  like  result; 
until  it  came  to  be  accepted  in  the  scientific  world 
that  the  telegraph  could  not  be  worked  with  the 
newly-discovered  electro-magnetism.  So  strongly 
was  this  fixed  in  the  opinion  of  the  day,  that  as 
late  as  1837 — thirteen  years  after  the  invention  of 
the  electro -magnet  by  Sturgeon — so  eminent  a  sci- 
entist and  discoverer  as  Wheatstone,  pronounced 
the  electro- magnetic  telegraph  impossible,  on  an 
occasion  when  the  very  question  was  submitted  to 
him  for  decision  by  Cooke,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Faraday  himself.  This  fact  is  so  important,  and 
so  conclusive  on  the  question  now  under  examina- 
tion, that  I  read  Wheatstone's  own  account  of  it, 
submitted  by  himself  to  arbitrators  who  were  to 
decide  a  controversy  between  himself  and  Cooke 
as  to  their  respective  merits  as  inventors  of 
one  form  of  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph.  He 
says:  "I  believe,  but  am  not  quite  sure,  that 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH.  39 

"  it  was  on  the  first  of  March,  1837,  that  Mr. 
"  Cooke  introduced  himself  to  me.  He  told  me 
"  he  had  applied  to  Dr.  Faraday,*  and  Dr.  Roget, 
"  for  some  information  relative  to  a  subject  on 
"  which  he  was  engaged,  and  they  had  referred 
"  him  to  me  as  having  the  means  of  answering 
"  his  inquiries.  *  Relying  upon  my 

"  former  experience,  I  at  once  told  Mr.  Cooke  that 
"  it  would  not,  and  could  not,  act  as  a  telegraph, 
"  because  sufficient  attractive  power  could  not  be 
"  imparted  to  an  electro -magnet  interposed  in  a 
"  long  circuit;  and  to  convince  him  of  the  truth  of 
"  this  assertion  I  invited  him  to  King's  College  to 
"  see  the  repetition  of  the  experiments  on  which 
"  my  conclusion  was  founded.  He  came,  and 
"  after  seeing  a  variety  of  voltaic  magnets  which, 
"  even  with  powerful  batteries,  exhibited  but  slight 
"  adhesive  attraction,  he  expressed  his  disap- 
"  pointment."-[ 

Cooke  confirms  this  statement  by  saying :  "It 
"  was  my  inability  to  make  the  electro-magnet  act 
"  at  long  distances  which  first  led  me  to  Mr. 
"  Wheatstone."i 

Let  the  difficulty  of  making  the  discovery 
which  overcame  this  impossibility  be  judged  by 
the  fact,  that  for  so  many  years,  such  men  as 
these  were  unable  to  do  it  when  it  was  needed; 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  N.  f  See  Appendix,  Note  O. 

J  See  Appendix,  Note  P. 


40  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND  THE 

and  let  that  fact  answer  the  envious  suggestion 
that  Henry's  achievement  involved  no  great 
amount  of  analytic  and  inventive  power. 

When  Barlow's  demonstration  was  published  in 
1824,  Henry  had  never  seen  an  electro-magnet,  nor 
tried  an  experiment  in  electricity.  When,  how- 
ever, two  years  later  he  took  up  the  subject,  and 
began  the  first  set  of  regular  scientific  investiga- 
tions ever  attempted  in  the  United  States,  he  de- 
duced from  Ampere's  law  the  principle  that  the 
voltaic  currents,  carried  on  wires  around  the  iron 
core  of  the  electro-magnet,  should  move  in  planes 
at  right  angles  to  the  axis  of  that  core — which 
they  could  not  do  even  approximately  if  the  core 
itself  were  insulated,  as  in  Sturgeon's  small 
magnet,  having  only  one  coil  of  naked  wire 
wound  spirally  around  it,  necessarily  leaving  open 
spaces  between  the  successive  spirals,  and  so  lead- 
ing the  current  like  a  cork  screw  around  the  core. 
He  also  reasoned  that,  as  the  current  must  be  led 
through  a  spiral  circuit,  which  theoretically  should 
be  circular,  the  departure  from  its  true  course 
might  be  counteracted  by  winding  the  wire  on  a 
second  spiral  outside  of  the  first,  but  with  its 
spiral  angle  opposed,  so  that  the  resultant  of  the 
current  from  the  two  spirals  would  be  the  same  as 
if  it  revolved  in  planes  at  right  angles  to  the  axis 
of  the  core. 

He  brought  his  reasoning  to  the  test  of  experi- 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH. 


ment.  Instead  of  insulating  the  core,  he  wrapped 
a  fine  copper  wire  with  silk,  and  wound  it  on  the 
core;  each  spiral  closely  packed  against  its  fellows, 
so  as  to  correct  the  spiral  error  as  much  as  possible 
in  each  layer;  and  then  he  wound  the  wire  in  a 
second  spiral  over  the  first,  but  with  the  pitch  of 
the  screw,  so  to  speak,  in  the  opposite  direction. 
And  carrying  out  the  principle  he  multiplied  the 
coils  to  an  enormous  extent  in  the  same  way.  The 
result  justified  and  established  his  theory;  and  his 
magnets  at  once  showed  a  capacity  hundreds  of 
times  greater  than  any  then  known  to  science.* 

But  this  was  not  all.  Another  step  had  to  be 
taken  before  Barlow's  demonstration  could  be  over- 
thrown, and  the  telegraph  made  possible.  And 
this  he  took  by  discovering  and  establishing  the 
fact,  that  a  magnet  with  a  long  fine  wire  coil  must 
be  worked  by  a  battery  of  "intensity,"  composed 
of  a  large  number  of  cells  in  series,  when  a  distant 
effect  was  required;  and  that  the  greatest  dynamic 
effect,  close  at  hand,  is  produced  by  a  battery  of  a 
very  few  cells  of  large  surface,  combined  with  a  coil 
or  coils  of  short  coarse  wire  around  the  magnet. 

These  discoveries  and  inventions  solved  the 
problem  which  had  seemed  to  European  scientists 
insoluble;  and  in  one  account  of  them  which  was 
published  in  "  Sillimari's  Journal"  for  January, 
1831,  he  says  :  "  The  fact  that  the  magnetic  action 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  Q. 


42  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND  THE 

"  of  a  current  from  a  trough  is  at  least  not  sensibly 
"  diminished  by  passing  through  a  long  wire,  is 
11  directly  applicable  to  Mr.  Barlow's  project  of 
"  forming  an  electro-magnetic  telegraph."*  This 
reference  was  to  Barlow's  paper  of  1824,  in 
which  he  had  demonstrated  the  impracticability 
of  the  telegraph. 

Had  these  things  been  done  in  the  Royal  Institu- 
tion, and  read  before  the  Royal  Society,  Wheatstone 
would  not  have  been  found,  in  1837,  denying  the 
possibility  of  an  electro-magnetic  telegraph ;  and 
Faraday  would  have  been  able  to  answer  Cooke's 
question,  without  sending  him  to  Wheatstone  for 
the  information.  In  those  days,  however,  the 
United  States  were  held  in  no  higher  estimation  in 
Europe,  than  Nazareth  was  in  former  days  in 
Jerusalem ;  and  no  one  in  England  read  an 
American  book. 

But  not  content  with  having  reasoned  out,  and 
demonstrated,  that  distance  was  no  longer  the  sole 
impediment  in  the  way  of  the  magnetic  telegraph, 
Henry,  in  1831,  established  the  first  electro- 
magnetic telegraph  that  ever  existed.  In  the 
Albany  academy  he  strung  a  mile  of  line  wire, 
and  with  an  "intensity  battery  "  at  one  end,  and  his 
spool  of  long  fine  wire  at  the  other,  he  operated  the 
armature  of  the  first  sounding  telegraph  of  any 
kind.  When  the  armature  was  attracted  by 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  R. 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH.  43 

the  magnet,  it  struck  a  small  bell  or  sounder, 
which  spoke  its  signals  ;  and  that  apparatus  there 
was  maintained  to  illustrate  the  telegraph  to  the 
students. 

When  applied  to  practical  use,  some  code  of 
signals  must  be  arranged  for  translating  the 
successive  taps  of  the  armature ;  but  that  was 
well  known  in  the  telegraphic  art  for  ages, 
needing  only  good  judgment  in  arranging  it, 
so  that  the  letters  which  occur  most  frequently, 
shall  be  represented  by  the  smallest  number  of 
motions  ;  just  as  Gauss  and  Weber  arranged  their 
needle-telegraph  code  in  1833,  when  the  movements 
of  their  needle  to  and  fro,  in  a  number  of  simple 
combinations,  indicated  the  alphabet.* 

These  ' '  spools  "  of  Henry  have  been  the  means 
by  which  most  of  the  great  discoveries  in  electro- 
magnetism  have  since  been  made.  Faraday  and 
Henry  used  them  in  their  famous  researches  already 
referred  to,  in  which  they  discovered  magneto- 
electricity.  Sturgeon,  in  writing  of  them,  says : 
"  Professor  Henry  has  been  enabled  to  produce  a 
"  magnetic  force  which  totally  eclipses  every  other 
"  in  the  whole  annals  of  magnetism;  and  no  parallel 
"  is  to  be  found  since  the  miraculous  suspension  of 
"  the  celebrated  oriental  impostor  in  his  iron 
"  coffin,  "f  Without  them  we  could  not  have  the 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  S. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  T. 


44  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

telegraph,  or  the  still  more  marvelous  telephone. 
They  are  to-day  essentials  of  modern  living  ;  and 
are  as  familiar  to  us  as  spools  of  cotton.  Judg- 
ing by  their  results,  they  constitute  the  most  im- 
portant discovery  which  has  ever  been  made  in 
electricity  since  Volta  created  the  battery. 

Henry  also  put  in  operation  at  Princeton  in  1835 
the  very  simple  and  obvious  plan  of  using  the  "in- 
"  tensity  spool  and  battery,"  working  through  long 
distances,  to  open  and  close  the  circuit  of  a  "quan- 
"  tity  spool  and  battery,"  stationed  where  the  work 
was  to  be  done;  thus  making  the  powerful  mag- 
net, at  short  range,  the  servant  of  the  weak  one  at 
long  range.  In  this  state  he  left  the  problem 
entirely  solved,  to  those  who  could  procure  the 
money  to  practically  apply  his  discoveries  to  the 
commercial  uses  of  man. 

That  task  was  no  easy  one.  In  1831  there  were 
no  railroads  and  no  steamships.  Over  rough 
country  roads  the  mails  were  carried  in  wagons  or 
coaches,  and  the  postage  on  a  single  letter  was  a 
shilling  for  short  distances,  and  twice  as  much  for 
longer.  But  little  capital  had  accumulated  in  this 
country;  and  corporations,  those  powerful  instru- 
ments for  uniting  the  slender  means  of  the  many 
into  a  compact  force  for  the  development  of  great 
industrial  enterprises,  were  hardly  known.  If  the 
most  perfect  telegraph  apparatus  of  to-day  had 
been  then  presented  to  the  public,  no  company 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  45 

could  have  been  formed  to  exploit  it.  The  time  had 
not  yet  come;  nor  could  it  come  until  railroads  were 
built,  and  the  exchange  of  material  things  had 
been  rendered  easy. 

In  Europe,  where  money  and  railroads  were  more 
abundant,  the  telegraph  was  first  put  into  practical 
use.  Wheatstone  and  Cooke,  in  England,  in  1838, 
having  first,  however,  seen  and  talked  with  Henry 
on  the  subject  in  1837,*  after  they  had  first  de- 
cided the  thing  to  be  impossible,  established  a 
practical  commercial  telegraph  line  between  Pad- 
dington  and  West  Dayton,  a  distance  of  thirteen 
miles ;  and  a  shorter  line  was  in  Munich.f  In 
this  country  private  capital  could  not  be  raised 
for  the  purpose  at  all ;  not  because  there  was 
any  doubt  that  the  thing  could  work,  but  because 
no  one  supposed  it  would  repay  the  investment ; 
as  it  certainly  would  not  have  done  in  those  early 
days.  At  last  Congress  was  induced  to  do  what 
private  enterprise  refused,  and  in  1844,  six  years 
after  the  English  lines  had  been  in  practical  oper- 
ation, and  seven  years  after  the  Bavarian,  money 
was  appropriated  for  the  line  between  Baltimore 
and  Washington.  This  was  accomplished,  after 
great  exertions,  by  persons  hoping  for  the  reward 
which  a  patent  for  some  of  the  contrivances  con- 
nected with  that  particular  plan  promised. 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  U. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  V. 


46  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND  THE 

Neither  in  England,  where  Wheatstone  had  a 
patent  founded  on  Henry's  inventions,  nor  here, 
where  Morse  had  a  similar  one,  could  the  telegraph 
have  been  introduced  for  years  after  it  really 
was,  but  for  the  beneficient  operation  of  the  patent 
laws.  But  few  men  are  to  be  found  who  will 
incur  the  risks,  and  expend  the  money,  incident 
to  the  introduction  of  a  new  and  untried  industry, 
without  the  hope  of  that  pecuniary  return,  which  in 
such  cases,  can  only  be  secured  by  the  exclusive 
use  for  a  "limited  time"  of  the  new  thing,  during 
which  it  is  hoped  the  original  losses  maybe  repaid, 
and  a  profit  earned.* 

Let  us  now  consider  what  would  have  been  the 
position  of  Henry  in  the  world,  if  at  any  time 
before  his  inventions  had  been  so  long  in  public 
use  that  he  had  lost  his  rights,  he  had  taken  a 
patent  for. 

First,  his  magnetic  spools,  pure  and  simple; 

Secondly,  the  combination  of  a  magnetic  spool 
of  long  fine  wire,  with  an  "  intensity  battery,"  for 
the  purpose  of  producing  a  practical  magnetic 
effect  at  great  distances; 

Thirdly,  the  combination  with  such  an  appa- 
ratus of  a  quantity  battery,  operating  upon  a  spool- 
magnet  of  coarse  and  short  wire,  at  a  distance 
from  the  intensity  battery;  whereby  the  great  lift- 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  W. 


MAGNETIC  TELEGRAPH.  47 

ing  power  of  the  quantity  magnet  might  be  con- 
trolled by  the  intensity  combination; 

And  finally,  the  combination  of  the  intensity 
battery  and  spool,  with  a  vibrating  armature,  so 
arranged  as  to  strike  a  sounder  when  the  circuit 
is  closed  or  opened  at  the  sending  end,  for  the 
purpose  of  transmitting  intelligible  messages  tele- 
graphically. 

All  these  he  might  have  patented  in  the  United 
States  at  any  time  during  several  years  after  his 
discoveries  and  inventions  were  made;  and  he 
could  have  held  them  against  the  world.  That  he 
was  the  first  man  to  do  all  these  things  is  not  in 
doubt  anywhere.  If  he  had  taken  such  a  patent, 
as  late  as  1837,  he  would  have  controlled  the 
telegraph  in  this  country,  certainly  until  1851; 
and  unless  he  had  then  been  adequately  rewarded 
for  his  great  inventions,  his  term  would  have  been 
extended  till  1858.  Imagine  the  good  he  would 
have  done  to  science  had  the  wealth  which  this 
would  have  produced  been  poured  into  his  purse  ! 

But  listen  to  his  noble  words:  "  At  the  time  of 
"  making  my  original  experiments  in  electro- 
"  magnetism  in  Albany,  I  was  urged  by  a  friend 
"  to  take  out  a  patent,  both  for  its  application  to 
"  machinery,  and  to  the  telegraph;  but  this  I  de- 
"  clined,  on  the  ground  that  I  did  not  then  consider 
' '  it  compatible  with  the  dignity  of  science  to  confine 


48  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

"  the  benefits  which  might  be  derived  from  it  to  the 
"  exclusive  use  of  any  individual." 

Pure  science  was  his  beloved,  and  he  could  not 
make  merchandise  of  her. 

When  that  sentence  was  written,  other  eminent 
scientists  had  thought  differently  of  this  question, 
and  had  patented  their  discoveries ;  and  lest  he 
might  seem  to  cast  a  reproach  upon  them,  and  to 
say  "lam  holier  than  thou,"  his  humble  spirit 
added  these  words:  "In  this,  perhaps,  I  was  too 
fastidious." 

It  must  have  occurred  to  him  at  times,  when  he 
needed  money  for  his  experiments,  and  when  he 
saw  the  fruits  of  his  labor  enriching  the  world, 
that  he  might  have  taken  some  share  of  the 
wealth;  but  he  would  not  taint  with  selfishness  his 
generous  gift.  How  valuable  in  money  it  was  he 
knew  full  well.  Even  for  that  fragment  of  it, 
then  for  six  years  by  him  given  to  the  public, 
which  was  carried  to  Morse  in  1837  to  enable 
him  to  construct  his  special  plan  of  a  recording 
telegraph  in  that  year,  now  practically  obsolete, 
Dr.  Gale,  who  carried  it,  received  a  share  in 
the  patent  which  was  founded  upon  it,  and 
without  which  it  could  not  have  existed.  For 
that  share  fifteen  thousand  dollars  in  cash  were 
subsequently  paid  to  him.  And  its  use  for  the 
telegraph  was  but  a  small  part  of  its  infinite  va- 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  49 

riety  of  applications  to  the  arts,  and  the  purposes 
of  man. 

Come  with  me  now  into  a  telegraph  office,  and 
let  us  see  what  we  find  there.  If  the  line  be  a 
short  one — say  thirty  or  forty  miles — you  will  see 
but  one  of  Henry's  spools,  fixed  to  a  table, 
having  a  piece  of  iron  called  an  "armature," 
capable  of  vibrating  in  front  of  its  poles,  and  so 
arranged  that  when  the  "spool-magnet"  attracts 
it,  it  will  vibrate  and  strike  a  sounding-bar  of 
sonorous  metal,  which  gives  out  distinctly  the 
sound  of  the  tap.  The  "spool"  is  wound  spirally 
in  layers  with  several  hundred  feet  of  fine  copper 
wire,  covered  with  silk,  in  the  manner  specified 
by  Henry  in  "  Sillimaris  Journal."  At  the 
other  end  of  the  line  is  a  battery,  composed  of  a 
number  of  cells  in  series,  called  by  Henry  for 
distinction  an  "intensity  battery;  "  and  the  wire 
circuit  is  supplied  with  a  simple  device,  so  that  it 
may  be  opened  or  closed  by  the  operator's  finger. 
When  he  closes  it,  a  current  of  electricity 
flows  from  the  "intensity  battery"  along  the 
wire,  and  around  the  coil  of  the  ' '  intensity  mag- 
net," and  the  armature  strikes  the  sounder  and 
gives  the  signal.  The  listener  hears  it;  and  as  the 
order  of  the  taps  progresses  in  accordance  with 
a  pre-arranged  artificial  code,  to  express  the  let- 
ters of  the  alphabet  by  combinations  of  succes- 
sive taps — just  as  the  old  visible  signals  were  ar- 


50  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND   THE 

ranged  by  combinations  of  the  successive  move- 
ments of  the  vanes,  or  afterwards  of  the  needle  of 
the  Gauss  and  Weber  telegraph— he  hears  letter 
after  letter  tapped  out,  and  the  message  is  under- 
stood. 

Now,  that  apparatus  has  nothing  about  it 
more  than  was  in  Henry's  Albany  telegraph  of 
1831;  nor  could  it  operate  if  it  omitted  any  one  of 
the  inventions,  either  singly  or  together,  which 
were  then  for  the  first  time  combined.  It  depends 
entirely  upon  the  discoveries  made  by  Henry  before 
1831;  and  it  could  not  have  existed  in  the  world 
earlier  than  those  discoveries,  by  the  use  of  any 
means  then  known  to  man ;  nor  since  by  any 
other  means  than  those  discovered  by  Henry. 

Henry  used  a  bell  as  a  sounder;  they  now  use 
a  metal  bar  and  a  sounding  box.  Henry  reversed 
the  battery  current,  whereby  no  spring  is  needed 
to  withdraw  the  armature  for  the  purpose  of 
vibrating  it;  and  that  is  the  common  practice  in 
English  and  German  telegraphs.  Here  they 
generally  merely  interrupt  the  circuit,  and  the 
armature  is  withdrawn  from  the  magnet  by  a 
spring;  although  Henry's  device  is  also  used  here 
largely,  and  is  essential  to  the  quadruplex  instru- 
ments.* 

If,  however,  the  telegraph  line  is  a  long  one — it 
may  be  a  thousand  miles  or  more — then  you  will 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  X. 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  51 

see  two  sets  of  Henry's  spools,  and  two  batteries. 
One  is  the  "intensity  battery  and  spool"  first  de- 
scribed; and  the  coil  of  fine  wire  maybe,  and  often 
is,  several  thousand  feet  long — while  the  battery 
is  composed  of  more  than  a  hundred  cells.  The 
distance  being  so  great  they  do  not  attempt  to 
send  force  enough  through  the  intensity  circuit  to 
operate  a  sounder,  but  only  to  open  and  close  the 
local  circuit  of  Henry's  quantity  battery  and 
spool.  That  circuit  consists  of  a  battery  of  but 
one  or  two  cells  of  large  surface,  and  a  spool 
with  about  a  hundred  feet  of  coarse  wire  wound 
around  its  core.  The  intensity  combination  opens 
and  closes  this  quantity  circuit,  whose  armature 
strikes  the  sounder,  just  as  the  intensity  armature 
itself  does  on  shorter  lines.  This  obvious  plan 
Henry  described  and  exhibited  in  Princeton  to  his 
classes,  long  before  any  magnetic  telegraph  was 
ever  commercially  constructed,  or  the  convenience 
of  such  an  arrangement  had  resulted  from  the 
great  length  to  which  the  lines  are  stretched. 

Upon  that  apparatus  there  are  but  four  names 
to  be  written.  Oersted,  who  discovered  the  effect 
of  the  voltaic  current  upon  the  magnetic  needle  ; 
Arago,  who  discovered  that  the  voltaic  current 
could  generate  magnetism ;  Sturgeon,  who  produced 
the  first  electro-magnet;  and  Henry,  who  discovered 
the  conditions  under  which  an  electro-magnet 
might  be  operated  at  a  distance — who  invented  the 


52  PROFESSOR  HENRY  AND  THE 

devices  by  which  it  could  so  operate — and  who 
applied  those  devices  to  an  operative  telegraph,  of 
the  same  form  and  substance  as  that  now  in  use 
all  over  the  world.  Beyond  their  discoveries  and 
inventions  nothing  is  essential  to  the  present  tele- 
graph, except  that  which  was  of  common  knowl- 
edge when  those  discoveries  were  completed,  and 
that  ordinary  mechanical  skill  which  is  far  below 
the  level  either  of  discovery  or  invention. 
This  is  the  record,  and  so  it  will  stand  forever. 

"  The  moving  finger  writes  ;  and  having  writ, 
"  Moves  on  :  nor  all  your  piety  nor  wit 
"  Shall  lure  it  back  to  cancel  half  a  line, 
"  Nor  all  your  tears  wash  out  one  word  of  it." 

Forty  years  had  fled  away  since  as  teacher  and 
pupil  we  first  met,  and  they  seemed  like  a  dream 
that  is  past,  when  again  we  met  to  part  forever 
in  this  world.  In  the  chamber  where  the 
angel  of  death  hovered  over  him,  just  ready  to 
call  him  away,  he  talked  thankfully  of  the  past, 
and  hopefully  of  that  eternity  on  whose  verge  he 
stood.  The  vigor  of  youth  and  of  manhood  had 
been  all  spent  in  the  service  of  humanity,  and  his 
strength  was  gone.  The  pallor  of  disease  had 
dispelled  the  delicate  hues  of  health,  and  time  had 
traced  its  furrows  on  his  brow.  But  the  unclouded 
intellect  still  held  its  sway,  enthroned  in  that 
magnificent  head  on  which  the  snows  of  many 
winters  had  drifted ;  and  the  gentle  loving  spirit 


MAGNETIC   TELEGRAPH.  53 

still,  as  of  old,  illumined  his  beautiful  face,  but 
with  a  clearer,  warmer  light,  reflecting  the  heaven 
upon  which  he  gazed.  For  himself  he  had  but 
one  regret — that  he  had  not  been  spared  to 
complete  his  last  great  labor,  by  which  he 
hoped  to  confer  still  one  more  benefit  upon  hu- 
manity, by  discovering  some  means  affording 
greater  security  for  mariners  on  the  treacherous 
coast,  when  fogs  draw  down  their  impenetrable 
veils  over  the  lights,  and  the  syren's  voice  fails  to 
pierce  the  fickle  air. 

The  faithful  servant — faithful  unto  death — only 
mourned  that  he  could  not  have  done  more.  With 
the  humble  spirit  of  the  true  Christian,  after  hav- 
ing in  the  estimation  of  his  fellow-men  done  so 
much,  he,  knowing  better  than  others  how  much 
was  yet  to  be  done,  exclaimed  "I  am  an  un- 
profitable servant.  " 

Such  a  life  and  such  a  death  exalt  and  glorify 
humanity;  illustrating  and  indelibly  impressing 
upon  our  hearts  the  sublime  truth,  that  man  is 
made  in  the  image  of  God. 

"  Along  the  smooth  and  slender  wires,  the  sleepless  heralds  run, 
"  Fast  as  the  clear  and  living  rays  go  streaming  from  the  sun; 
"  No  peals  or  flashes,  heard  or  seen,  their  wondrous  flight  betray, 
"  And  yet  their  words  are  quickly  felt,  in  cities  far  away. 

4 '  Nor  summer's  heat,  nor  winter's  cold,  can  check  their  rapid  course ; 
4 'Unmoved  they  meet  the  fierce  wind's  blast,  the  rough  waves 
sweeping  force. 


54  PROFESSOR  HENRY. 


"  In  the  long  night  of  rain  and  wrath,  as  in  the  blaze  of  day, 
"  They  rush  with  news  of  weal  or  woe  to  thousands  far  away. 

"  But  faster  still  .than  tidings  borne  on  that  electric  cord, 

"  Rise  the  pure  thoughts  of  him  who  loves  the  Christian's  life  and 

Lord, 

"  Of  him  who  taught,  in  smiles  and  tears,  with  fervent  lips  to  pray, 
"  Maintains  high  converse,  here  on  earth,  with  bright  worlds  far 

away. 

"  Aye,  though  no  outward  wish  is  breathed,  nor  outward  answer 

given, 

"  The  sighing  of  that  humble  heart,  is  known  and  felt  in  heaven; 
1 '  Those  long  frail  wires  may  bend  or  break,  those  viewless  heralds 

stay; 

"  But  faith's  last  word  shall  reach  the  throne  of  God,  though  far 

« 
away.* 


See  Appendix,  Note  Y. 


NOTE  A,  PAGE  11. 

Life  of  Faraday,  by  Bence  Jones.  London: 
Vol.  II.,  p  285. 

NOTE  B,  PAGE  12. 

Faraday's  Experimental  Eesearches.  Vol.  I.,  p. 
1,  and  plate. 

NOTE  C,  PAGE  12. 

A  full  account  of  this  is  in  Bence  Jones'  Life  of 
Faraday,  Vol.  II.,  p.  1  to  6.  Faraday  tried  it  in 
1824,  '25,  and  '28,  and  failed  each  time;  although, 
since  magnetism  had  been  developed  from  electric- 
ity, the  converse  of  the  problem  seemed  very 
feasible.  On  the  21st  of  September,  1831,  he  tried 
the  experiment  with  an  iron  ring  electro-magnet, 
constructed  according  to  Henry's  invention,  using 
an  intensity  battery  of  ten  pairs.  One-half  of  the 
ring  was  wound  with  72  feet  of  insulated  wire;  and 
the  other  half  with  about  60  feet,  in  the  circuit  of 
which  a  galvanometer  was  placed.  When  the 
battery  was  closed  upon  the  first  circuit,  the  iron 
ring  became  magnetic,  and  a  current  of  electricity 
was  set  up,  by  induction,  in  the  second  circuit, 


56  APPENDIX. 


and  the  galvanometer  moved.  This  experiment 
says  his  biographer,  is  "  the  discovery  by  which 
he  will  be  forever  known." 

Henry's  account  of  his  own  discovery  exhibits 
the  very  same  apparatus.  He  used  his  electro- 
magnet, capable  of  lifting  600  or  700  Ibs.,  and 
united  its  poles  by  an  iron  bar  or  "keeper,"  firmly 
fixed,  so  as  to  form  a  complete  circuit — the  same 
as  the  iron  ring  in  Faraday's  experiment.  Around 
this  "  keeper"  he  wound  about  30  feet  of  insulated 
wire,  in  many  layers,  occupying  about  one  inch  in 
the  length  of  the  keeper,  and  placed  a  galvanom- 
eter in  the  circuit  of  the  coil.  When  the  battery 
circuit  was  closed  and  broken  on  the  coil  of  the 
magnet,  the  galvanometer  moved,  and  the  great 
discovery  was  made  (Sillimari's  Journal,  July, 
1832). 

Faraday  had  been  working  over  it  for  seven 
years.  Henry  never  touched  the  question  till  1827. 

NOTE  D,  PAGE  21. 

In  another  arrangement  of  this  same  invention, 
a  heavy  wire  is  laid  between  the  tracks,  and  large 
inductive  coils,  near  the  floor  of  the  car,  are 
affected  by  the  current  in  the  line  wire.  Henry 
exhibited  the  principle  of  this  apparatus  in 
Princeton,  when  in  the  cellar  of  the  Philosophical 
Hall,  induced  currents  were  set  up  in  a  wire  lead- 
ing around  the  apartment,  induced  by  passing  a 
battery  current  through  a  similar  wire  in  the 
upper  story,  thirty  feet  above,  and  with  two  floors 
between. 


APPENDIX.  57 


NOTE  E,  PAGE  21. 

This  engine  is  now  at  Princeton  in  the  labora- 
tory. 

NOTE  F,  PAGE  25. 

Since  the  accession  of  President  McCosh,  the 
donations  to  Princeton  College  have  been  munifi- 
cent. John  rC.  Green,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  in  his 
lifetime,  and  the  trustees  of  his  estate  since  his 
death,  have  given  princely  gifts,  amounting  to 
millions.  The  Green  School  of  Science,  with  its 
splendid  buildings  and  complete  apparatus,  sup- 
ported by  an  endowment  for  its  professors;  the 
beautiful  library,  with  an  ample  fund;  Dickenson 
Hall,  containing  elegant  lecture  and  class-rooms; 
Witherspoon  Hall,  one  of  the  noblest  structures 
in  the  State,  and  Edwards'  Hall — both  dormitories 
for  students;  and  large  sums  for  general  purposes, 
are  the  permanent  monuments  of  this  generosity. 

Henry  G.  Marquand,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  has 
erected  a  beautiful  chapel,  bearing  his  name,  un- 
surpassed by  any  college  chapel  in  this  country; 
and  in  addition,  has  endowed  a  professorship  of  art. 

Messrs.  Robert  L.  Stewart  and  Alexander 
Stewart,  brothers,  gave  to  the  College  during 
their  lifetime  the  splendid  Potter  mansion,  as  a 
residence  for  the  President. 

Mrs.  Robert  L.  Stewart,  of  New  York,  has 
founded  the  School  of  Philosophy,  and  lately  has 
given  $150,000  to  establish  the  chairs  in  this  school 
— thus  emulating  the  example,  and  equalling  the 
generosity  of  her  deceased  husband  and  brother-in- 
law  to  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton. 


58  APPENDIX. 


The  late  Mr.  Hamilton  Murray  founded  Murray 
Hall;  and  John  I.  Blair,  Esq.,  of  New  Jersey,  has 
endowed  a  professor's  chair. 

Messrs.  Robert  Bonner,  Robert  L.  Stewart,  and 
others,  presented  the  magnificent  24-inch  aperture 
telescope,  which  now,  in  the  hands  of  the  re- 
nowned astronomer,  Professor  Young,  is  doing 
good  work,  and  is  familiarizing  students  with  the 
mysteries  of  the  universe. 

Physical  culture  has  not  been  neglected  by  the 
Pactolian  stream;  and  Messrs.  Robert  Bonner  and 
Henry  G.  Marquand,  jointly,  have  erected  one 
of  the  most  complete  gymnasiums  in  the  country. 

Thus  our  Alma  Mater  is  strengthened  and 
adorned.  Let  her  children,  however,  not  forget 
that  her  great  present  need  is  scholarships,  which 
are  essential  to  her  full  development;  and  that 
even  $100,000  would  render  an  immense  service  in 
this  most  important  department. 

NOTE  G,  PAGE  34. 

"  Description  of  an  Electric  Telegraph,  and  some 
other  Electrical  Apparatus,"  by  Frances  Ronalds. 
8  vo.  London:  1823;  also  see  Nature,  London, 
November  23,  18T1.  Vol.  5,  p.  59. 

NOTE  H,  PAGE  34. 

"The  Electric  Magnetic  Telegraph,"  by  Law- 
rence Turnbull.  8  vo.,  2d  Ed.  Philadelphia: 
1853,  pp.  21,  22. 

Harrison  Gray  Dyar,  an  American,  set  up  an 
electric  telegraph  in  1827,  '28,  at  the  race  course 


APPENDIX.  59 


on  Long  Island.  Static  electricity  was  used  to 
make  a  record  on  a  strip  of  moving  litmus  paper, 
and  the  alphabet  was  spelled  out  by  the  intervals 
between  the  sparks  passing.  /&.,  1st  Ed.,  1852, 
p.  6.  2d  Ed.,  p.  22. 

NOTE  I,  PAGE  35. 

"  Schweigger's  Journal  fiirChemieundPhysik." 
1811.  Vol.  II.,  pp.  217,  et  seq. 

NOTE  K,  PAGE  35. 

This  was  Bains'  English  patent.  The  same  sys- 
tem has  been  several  times  tried  here,  but  with  no 
great  success.  The  Little-Edison  "  automatic  "  or 
"fast  line  "  to  Washington  some  years  ago,  worked 
on  this  plan  ;  and  more  recently  the  Eapid,  and  the 
Postal  Telegraphs.  In  all  cases,  however,  an  elec- 
tro-magnetic attachment  is  needed  to  give  the 
alarm,  and  correct  the  errors. 

NOTE  L,  PAGE  36. 

Journal  of  the  Society  of  Arts.  July  29,  1859. 
Vol.  VII.,  pp.  606-7. 

NOTE  M,  PAGE  36. 

Gottingische  Gelehrte.  Aug.  9,  1834.  Part  II., 
No.  128,  pp.  1272-3. 

NOTE  N,  PAGE  39. 

Faraday  had  used  Henry's  quantity  magnets  in 
his  experiments ;  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
considered  the  effect  of  the  combination  of  an 
intensity  battery  with  an  intensity  magnet,  for 


60  APPENDIX. 


distant  effects  ;  having  probably  overlooked  Hen- 
ry's demonstration  of  that  result  in  Silliman's 
Journal  of  1831.  Hence  his  reference  to  Wheat- 
stone. 

The  effect  of  removing  the  magnet  from  the 
battery  is  stated  by  Daniells  as  late  as  1843,  as  an 
elementary  truth.  He  says:  "Electro-magnets 
of  the  greatest  power,  even  when  the  most  ener- 
getic batteries  are  employed,  utterly  cease  to  act 
when  they  are  connected  by  considerable  lengths 
of  wire  with  the  battery."  (Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Chemical  Philosophy ;  by  Prof.  John 
Frederick  Daniell,  2d  Ed.,  1843,  chap.  XVI.,  sec. 
859,  p.  576.) 

NOTE  0,  PAGE  39. 

The  Electric  Telegraph :  Was  it  invented  by 
Professor  Wheatstone  ?  By  W.  F.  Cooke.  Part 
II.  1856. 

NOTE  P,  PAGE  39. 
16.     Part  I.,  p.  198. 

NOTE  Q,  PAGE  41. 

Professor  Henry  made  a  magnet  for  Yale  Col- 
lege—still there— which  lifted  2,300  pounds  (Silli- 
man's Journal,  April,  1831;  Vol.  XX.,  p.  201).  His 
great  Princeton  Magnet,  now  in  the  Scientific  De- 
partment, lifted  above  3,000  pounds  with  a  very 
small  battery. 

NOTE  E,  PAGE  42. 
Vol.  XIX.,  pp.  403-4. 


APPENDIX.  61 


NOTE  S,  PAGE  43. 

Ingenious  men  for  ages  have  amused  themselves 
in  arranging  a  bi-signal  alphabet  to  obtain  the  most 
simple  system.  Bacon,  in  his  great  work,  "  On  the 
Dignity  and  Advancement  of  Learning,''  Vol.  VI., 
ch.  1,  1605,  gives  an  alphabet  of  two  signs,  and 
says  of  it :  "  This  contrivance  shows  a  method  of 
expressing  and  signifying  one's  mind  to  any  dis- 
tance, by  objects  that  are  either  visible  or  audible, 
provided  the  objects  are  capable  of  two  differences, 
as  bells,  speaking  trumpets,  fire-works  and  can- 
non," &c. 

In  Rees'  Cyclopaedia  (1802-19)  are  given  various 
illustrations  of  bi-signal  and  tri-signal  alphabets. 

Gauss  and  Weber's  alphabets  in  1833,  and  Stein- 
heil's  in  1836,  are  very  nearly  as  simple  as  possible. 
They  use,  at  most,  only  four  movements,  and  the 
most  frequent  letters  are  represented  by  only  one. 
Two  and  a-half  movements  to  a  letter  are  needed 
in  the  best  arranged  bi-signal  alphabet,  and  these 
old  ones  probably  would  not  require  more. 

NOTE  T,  PAGE  43. 

Philosophical  Magazine.  March,  1832.  Vol.  XL, 
p.  199. 

NOTE  U,  PAGE  45. 
Smithsonian  Report.     1857.     Pp.  111-12. 

NOTE  V,  PAGE  45. 

Steinheil  had  his  telegraph  working  at  Munich, 
in  July,  1837,  over  twelve  miles  of  line,  with  eight 


APPENDIX. 


stations.  It  was  both  a  sounding  and  a  printing 
telegraph,  and  used  the  earth  as  the  return  circuit. 
Two  bells  of  different  tones  gave  all  the  combina- 
tions needed  for  the  alphabet.  (Sturgeon's  Annals, 
April,  1839,  Vol.  III.,  p.  520;  Comptes  Eendus, 
Vol.  VII.,  pp.  590-93;  see  also  Julius  Dup's  An- 
wendung  des  Elektro-magnetismus,  Berlin,  1863, 
M  Ed.,  1873,  sect.  5,  pp.  339-347). 

SteinheiPs  telegraph  was  in  fact  a  galvanometer, 
in  which  the  needle  was  made  to  swing  and  strike 
a  bell,  and  to  mark  a  paper  by  an  inking  apparatus 
— much  like  the  cable  recorder  of  to-day.  It  was 
necessarily  weak,  and  quite  inferior  to  Henry's,  of 
1831,  in  which  any  amount  of  power  can  be  got, 
and  a  blow  of  any  strength  be  delivered. 

NOTE  W,  PAGE  46. 

In  the  United  States,  patents  are  granted  only  to 
inventors ;  but  in  England  they  are  granted  to 
those  who  "introduce"  the  inventions  into  the 
Kingdom,  whether  they  are  inventors  or  not.  The 
English  system,  although  not  founded  on  so 
high  motives  as  the  United  States,  is  yet  pro- 
ductive of  more  public  good,  because  it  stimulates 
enterprising  men  to  seek  for  valuable  improve- 
ments everywhere  in  the  world  and  introduce  them 
into  Great  Britain,  where,  perhaps,  their  authors 
would  never  come,  and  where,  without  a  patent, 
no  one  would  be  interested  in  pushing  them  into 
use.  For  a  long  time,  in  this  country,  the  tele- 
graph patent  did  not  repay  its  owners  for  intro- 
ducing it;  and  no  one  would  have  attempted  it,  or 
persevered  in  it,  unless  in  the  hope  of  future 


APPENDIX.  63 


reward,  which  could  not  have  been  got  unless 
under  the  protection  of  a  patent. 

When  the  Morse  patent  ran  out,  he  had  not 
been  adequately  rewarded  for  the  expense  and 
labor  incurred  in  introducing  his  special  arrange- 
ment into  public  use,  and  applied  for  an  extension 
to  the  Hon.  Charles  Mason,  then  Commissioner  of 
Patents.  Mr.  Mason  consulted  Professor  Henry 
on  the  subject,  and  he  advised  the  Commissioner 
to  grant  the  extension,  although  he  had  been  bit- 
terly assailed  by  Morse  and  his  friends  in  conse- 
quence of  the  testimony  he  had  been  compelled  to 
give  in  the  lawsuit  between  the  owners  of  the 
patent  and  inf ringers.  Professor  Henry,  although 
he  thought  it  derogatory  to  the  dignity  of  science 
for  a  scientist  to  seek  for  any  other  reward  for  his 
discoveries  than  the  consciousness  of  having  done 
good  to  his  fellow-men,  and  the  reputation  due  to 
his  discoveries,  yet  fully  appreciated  the  wisdom 
of  the  constitution  and  laws  on  the  subject  of 
patents,  and  thought  that  without  such  a  system 
the  discoveries  of  scientists,  who  devoted  them- 
selves to  research,  would  never  be  made  useful  for 
man  in  those  practical  forms  in  which  inventors 
embody  them,  and  introduce  them  to  the  world, 
often  with  great  labor  and  sacrifice. 

The  subjoined  letter  of  Mr.  Mason  exhibits  the 
magnanimous  character  of  Henry.  In  devotion  to 
principle,  he  recommended  an  extension  of  the 
Morse  patent,  knowing  that  to  reward  amply 
those  who  had  introduced  the  invention  to  the 
world,  would  stimulate  others  to  do  likewise,  al- 
though in  doing  it  he  specially  benefited  those 
who  had  "  despitefully  used  him." 


64  APPENDIX. 


"  UNITED  STATES  PATENT  OFFICE,  j 
MARCH  31,  1856.  J 

"SiR, — Agreeably  to  your  request,  I  now  make 
the  following  statement :  Some  two  years  since, 
when  an  application  was  made  for  an  extension  of 
Professor  Morse's  patent,  I  was  for  some  time  in 
doubt  as  to  the  propriety  of  making  that  exten- 
sion. Under  these  circumstances,  I  consulted 
with  several  persons,  and  among  others  with 
yourself,  with  a  view,  particularly,  to  ascertain 
the  amount  of  invention  fairly  due  to  Professor 
Morse.  The  result  of  my  inquiries  was  such  as  to 
induce  me  to  grant  the  extension.  I  will  further 
say  that  this  was  in  accordance  with  your  express 
recommendation,  and  that  I  was  probably  more 
influenced  by  this  recommendation,  and  the  infor- 
mation I  obtained  from  you,  than  by  any  other 
circumstance,  in  coming  to  that  conclusion. 

"I  am,  sir, 

"Yours  very  respectfully, 

"  CHARLES  MASON." 
"PROF.  J.  HENRY." 


NOTE  X,  PAGE  50. 

In  reversing  the  galvanic  current  on  the  po- 
larized relay  used  by  Henry  in  Albany,  and  now 
largely  used,  the  armature  is  moved  both  ways  by 
magnetism — that  is,  it  strikes  the  sounder,  and  is 
withdrawn  from  it,  by  magnetism.  When  the 
current  is  not  reversed,  but  is  broken  at  each 
signal,  magnetism  only  operates  one  way,  and  a 


APPENDIX.  65 


spring  is  used  to  withdraw  the  armature  from  the 
magnet,  where  it  remains  until  the  next  magnetic 
impulse  arrives. 

NOTE  Y,  PAGE  54. 

These  beautiful  and  now  appropriate  verses  ap- 
peared in  a  country  newspaper  in  New  Jersey  in 
1848.  The  figure  was  so  striking,  and  the  versifi- 
cation so  good,  that  I  remembered  them;  although 
I  regret  that  the  name  of  their  author  has  escaped 
me.  He  was  a  clergyman,  and  had  a  parish  in 
Pennsylvania. 


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